Is Four Still Enough?

The fight over the last ferrero rocher escalated quickly...

Over the last year the state of play has changed considerably for the G.I. Joe and Jane in the Dropzone Commander universe. Dave's vision of infantry becoming commonplace in our warzone had boiled up in its crusty cocoon, and cracked open to gush forth thousands of wheeled, jetpacked, railgun sporting freaks of nature who are now sowing their seeds of destruction across the face of the Reconquest. It has been a few months since Mr Lewis's love children became meta though, and many have been sat down on the naughty step and told to behave a little better in public. The most recent alterations, and in some case 'nerfs', is not what I'll be talking about today however. That horse has been flogged so hard in the community and on this blog that all that's left is a pile of donkey smelling dust.

I want to talk about the amount of infantry we need to include, or at least think we need, to have our lists perform at the most optimal levels possible. The 'OB recommended' number of infantry squads to field has always been four, but with Resistance lists sporting between 6-11 Infantry squads at any given time, Valkyries able to leap to wherever they want with reckless abandon, and the Scourge able to squirt worms into pretty much any building, is four still enough? Is this even the normal amount of troops anymore? How many should we be taking in the R:P2 theatre? Well, let's have a look shall we.

Intro:
For all their glamour, gadgets and guns, you will always need infantry for two main mission critical functions; finding and extracting objectives, and securing focal points. Pointing this out may seem as obvious as the PHR's love of capes and moulded chest armour, but I think it gets forgotten sometimes. Taking three squads of Hazard Suits is all well and good, but you still need to find those objectives and get them off the table! I also don't think people consider infantry a good medium for capturing focal points, which is incredibly off the mark. It was only last week that I held a Critical Location with a single squad of Eviscerators for five turns! Infantry can be very expensive, which makes them invaluable for securing these locations. With these points is mind, let's tackle this race by race, in Alphabetical (not Danphabetical) order.

PHR:
Everybody's favourite cyborg traitors had not just a lick of paint over their infantry battlegroup selection, but rather a full renovation. Until R:P2 landed like a tiny meteor in a bowl of custard (a messy, hot impact, causing lots of people to moan and not want their desserts anymore), the Medusa was commonplace in most PHR armies. The changes to her however have most Spheroes complaining that she has been 'nerfed too far', which will mean she will likely see the tabletop less. I couldn't agree less with that by the way, but that's a discussion for a different time. I bring up the Mother of the 12th Plague (Nano-bots, the 11th being 'All Swimming Pools Turn To Gazpacho Soup') because for the last six months the PHR have averagely had five infantry squads, as she could be used to perform infantry tasks.

The Longreach team weren't mentioned in the article, but
have superseded Immortals in a large number of lists these days

Now with the Medusa being dropped faster than a bikini top on Spring Break, I sense the PHR will commonly sport four infantry squads in a 1500 point list. Does this present any problems? Not really, because there are these things called Valkyries, and they're pretty electric. Rightly bumped in points in R:P2 from the experimental rules, these wonderful girls in their flying machines negate the need for transports to be around the mid-table unless 100% necessary, and can leap and bound to any focal point or critical location they want in most games by turns 3 or 4. The down side of having four squads though is that they can be tied down easily enough by forces like the Scourge or Resistance, and unless backed up by Sirens can get overwhelmed in CQB. A savvy general will be able to avoid any sticky confrontations however, and four squads (two of which being Valkyries) should be fine.

Conclusion: Four squads will be fine because of Valkyries, but if possible try and squeeze in some 
Sirens for back up.

Resistance:
I don't think I've ever seen a Resistance list with less than five infantry squads, and by their very nature Mad Max's cousins have never fit the 'four squad meta'. Even if you decided to take two squads of Marine Force Recon, the Infantry battlegroup would be occupied with a Lifthawk which must boast three squads. Then of course there are Freeriders, which still see play after that amendments due to their scout and objective extraction abilities. For a force which has supposedly been hunted for hundreds of years they field the most infantry squads, and have a very good variation between the units. I guess the Jellys haven't been doing their job very well. Either that or there's been nothing better to do in the dark than intermingle, and rain macs only have a limited shelf life... (In the bleak dusk of the future, there is only unprotected sex)

So, how many squads should you take? I don't think there is a correct answer for this when it comes to Resistance. Our very own Epitude Rusk took eleven infantry squads to Summer Invasion, which included two Lifthawks and numerous squads of Freeriders (it was something like twenty two bases!) and this list performed really well. It was able to inundate objective locations with troops and overwhelm any opposing forces. On the flip side, I've seen our very own Joe run a stripped down Resi list with only two squads of MFR's and a Lifthawk full of Infantry. Perhaps the only 'must have' is a Lifthawk with three squads, as I've never seen a list with only Krakens and Battle Busses perform well; they're just too slow to have as your only troop transports.

Conclusion: Take whatever feels right for you, that's your benefit with the Resistance, but with a minimum of five squads. Always roll with at least one Lifthawk.

Scourge: 
Having been dealt such a bad hand for such a long time I'm finally happy to announce that Scourge have one of their main strengths back, which is the solid backbone of infantry. Although the standard selection of four squads, with normally two of those being exotic, will likely persist into the new meta, there is a new trick up the Jelly's tentacles. We got worms.

Fully loaded and ready to corrupt

The Corruptor has changed the troop deployment and CQB game entirely, with it's literal injection of Razorworms into the field. With an 18" effective 'deploy' range the Corruptor will be able to dispense these most ugly of guard dogs to help in an assortment of infantry tasks. Although they can't hold objectives they can search for them, and are great for contesting FPs and CLs if squirted into a nearby building. It also turns out they are pretty bad ass in CQB, and will allow for an extra twelve dice in a fight when needed. Almost more importantly than that they will allow you to not commit all your occupiers to fights, in the hope of finding and flying away into the night with an objective. Is the Corruptor a +1 unit? Quite possibly, yes. Although you will only take four troop squads in your list, with a Corruptor you could end up with seven (or even more if you take two Corruptors!).

It's worth pointing out that if the Corruptor is destroyed without blowing it's load, or even if it rolls three 1's (save those Assisted Targeting cards), then you may feel a little light on the ground these days with the four Infantry, especially considering Exotics are harder to squeeze into lists than ever. Ironically, that's partly because of the Corruptor...

Conclusion: Four squads is okay to take, as long as you have two Exotic squads. For ultimate troop Scourgenanigans though be sure to bring along a Corruptor.

Shaltari:
I hear you Hog players, where could you possibly find the points to convert into more infantry units!? Gates cost about 30,000 Pungaris each (approx. Pungari to point exchange rate through Marks and Spencer), and now with all your Caimans and Panthers in lists where do you squeeze those precious points from? Well, you can't, but don't really need to if you bring an adequate number of gates and a decent-ish commander. Shaltari infantry are survivable (either because of warsuits or there just simply being tons of them), great at finding objectives, have extreme mobility, are decent at shooting and can even give it back in CQB! Well, excuse the Pungari for that last point; I used one base of Razorworms to terrorise a full squad of four bases the other day. It felt like releasing three angry Dobermans in a room of toddlers.

The only issue you may face these days is being locked in combat by a more numerous and survivable foe, and that's where your CV comes into play. Drawing Tactical Withdrawal and Escape Gate Drone cards can be incredibly useful in escaping combat if you need too. As you should have to be with Shaltari, you need to be canny as not to end up out of position, but on the occasion that you do there are always shenanigans to be played.

One note I haven't plucked is just how useful the Pungari horde (not hoard) is. They are unbelievably efficient at finding objectives, so much so that you could theoretically field three infantry squads instead of four if you really needed the points; you will still roll more dice than the average four squad army for finding objectives! You do lose your mystery somewhat by only using three squads, so I wouldn't really suggest it.

Conclusion: Four is better than ever for Shaltari. The Pungari allow your Braves and Firstborns to parade around the board, and deploy where they like.

UCM:
It's actually tough to say where the UCM are at the moment with Infantry. Our very own Mike likes to voyeur my posts as I write them, the dirty peeper, and asked "Wonder what you are going to say about the UCM?". My response, "Me too, to be honest.". They're just in a weird place at the moment. Legionnaires have never been so poor, as although they haven't changed the world around them has evolved and they've failed to keep up; think Rob Schneider's film career. I see less and less Praetorians than I ever have, although I'm not sure why this is (possibly to find points elsewhere), and with the recent nerf to Hazard Suits (the first chapter in the book 'A Step Too Far') their potency has diminished somewhat.

Our very own Mike's all-action Praetorians

That all said, and after chatting with our very own Mike, we reckon that the general number of squads you should be looking to field in 1500 points is five or six. This may seem a daunting number but the good thing about UCM infantry in the R:P2 meta is that they are mostly multi-purpose and so cheap! Flak Teams are now cheaper than Mortars and worth a look at, as they can search for objectives and still defend the back field. Stick them in a Bear (or Gorilla) and share a Condor with a Mortar squad and you've got a couple of squads to either search for objectives or secure local focal points. At a push they can even be redployed with the Condor. Although now a bit expensive Hazard suits are still killer and worth taking, and it's definitely worth getting some Praetorians in if possible.

The most glaring weakness of UCM, and one that has been fairly consistent since the start of the game, is CQB. Just avoid it if possible. Praetorians do help and roll lots of dice, but cannot survive a punch back and will fold in a war of attrition. Get in and get out, that's your MO.

Conclusion: Five or Six squads with a nice variety of functions, as variety is the spice of life. Just stay clear of any enemy with more than 10 combat dice!

Overall:
So, has the meta changed since last year? Yes is the answer, and fairly significantly. Although three of the five races will still run optimally with four squads of troops, they have other ways around the necessity of packing in more units, loopholes if you like. The era of the Hard Infantry lists has come to a close I feel, but although your reliance on troops will now be in different areas it is still as important as ever.